Tag: Supreme Court Database

While Supreme Court Justices’ votes are not purely the product of ideological preferences, some of the most important cases the justices decide come down to 5-4 splits along ideological lines. This was especially apparent during the 2017 Supreme Court term. Even though Chief Justice Roberts was in the conservative camp for many of these split…

This term the Supreme Court will hear arguments in its 100th case decided below by the Federal Circuit. The Court’s recent grant of the case Kisor v. Wilkie for argument also marks the fourth case granted from the Federal Circuit this term. This is by no means a small fraction of the Court’s total caseload….

On November 6th, the Court released its first signed majority opinion of the term authored by Justice Ginsburg. This is Ginsburg’s third consecutive term as author of the Court’s first signed majority opinion. In a concise unanimous decision (8-0 since Kavanaugh did not participate), the Court in Mount Lemmon Fire District v. Guido held that…

Success in the Supreme Court is hard to define because it can be viewed in a variety of ways. Few attorneys have the opportunity to try cases there and even fewer argue multiple cases. Part of success therefore is simply getting a case or cases to the Court. Once the Court agrees to hear a…

The discussion over who will fill the Supreme Court vacancy has dominated much of the political conversation since Justice Kennedy announced his retirement from the Supreme Court on June 27. Last night, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, an obvious choice and the one I predicted in December 2017, was announced as nominee. When Kennedy’s retirement rumors previously circulated,…

On January 18th, the Supreme Court released a short order requesting O’Melveny & Myers attorney Anton Metlitsky brief and argue the case of Lucia v. SEC supporting the decision below. The case examines whether administrative law judges of the Securities and Exchange Commission are officers of the United States within the meaning of the appointments clause….

There have been interesting discussions as of late regarding the Supreme Court’s light workload and how it is getting even lighter. Evidence of this decline can be found in quantitative analyses of the Supreme Court’s work. It is a not a subject addressed by any member of the Court. The Chief Justice, for example, did mention…

Legal interpretation begins with a legal text. At least in theory it does. While in practice this is not always the case, textualism has become synonymous with conservatism in recent Court eras primarily due to Justice Scalia’s reliance on the language of statutory texts. In practice, a textualist approach is not limited by judicial ideology and…

The Solicitor General’s Office (OSG) has a special relationship with the Supreme Court. In the role of adviser the Solicitor General is often referred to as the 10th Justice. The OSG enjoys much higher than average success in bringing cases to the Court and is even asked to give its opinions on whether the Court should…

This is the first of a series of two posts examining the federal government’s litigation in the Supreme Court. While this post looks at the last several terms of government litigation, the next will analyze the government’s upcoming cases. The federal government, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), is the most frequent…

Chief Justice John Roberts’ resume is not remarkably unique for a Supreme Court Justice. That is not to say that it is not impressive. There is scant evidence of an imperfection from his Harvard undergrad and law school education, appellate and Supreme Court clerkships, work in the Solicitor General’s Office, big firm law practice, and…

It’s a new day for the Supreme Court. We are in uncharted territory with this current Supreme Court vacancy with no end in sight. In some respect this has led to a liberal shift in the Court’s general demeanor – especially since this is the first time in decades that conservative Justices have not held a majority…